Wednesday, 5 June 2013

The
BinItByo Massive CBD cleanup campaign was conducted on the 1st of
June and it witnessed a high attendance as participants clocked well into the
thousands from the corporate world, high schools and tertiary institutions.
This landmark event was turned into a resounding success as it also was attended
by sponsors such as CBZ, FoodExpress, ZiFM Stereo,Spar Bonsa, Edgars and
Lobels. Active groups such as The Rotaract chapters of Matopos and Belmont,
Nust Alumni also graced the event with their presence. It was conducted under
the motto “My City, My Pride” and was headed by the BinItByo committee in
association with the Proudly Zimbabwean group.

1,2,3 BinIt!!!

The event was kick-started at seven am
in the morning by the BinItByo committee headed by chairperson Thembi Zulu as
the team and its assistants set up at the city hall. By ten am, registration of
participants had gathered pace with Miss Earth Zimbabwe 2012, Dimitra Markou
welcoming notable people in attendance.

Getting the crowd involved

After a nifty traditional dance was
done by a group of school children, official proceedings took off and the Mayor
highlighted in his speech the strides that the city had made in keeping the
city clean since 2008. This was then followed by the arrival and introduction
of Minister of Environment
and Natural Resources Honourable Francis Nhema who delivered a crowd provoking and involving speech that got individuals leading the crowd into song and dance aimed at raising awareness of the anti-litter campaign. The minister thanked Bulawayo For keeping the city the cleanest in the nation.

The Anti-Litter Petition

The minister then officially opened the “Anti-Litter Petition”,
and paved way for over a thousand signatures that were penned on the petition
sheet. Team Leaders were then stationed in front of everyone in attendance and
these team leaders went about with their teams to clean up the city by picking
up litter such as paper, cans, Styrofoam containers and biodegradable material
such as fruit peelings and placing them into separated bin bags. This clean up
was done by demarcating the city into 95 blocks and dispatching a team leader
who was in charge of a battalion of litter pickers. Each group was armed with separate
bin bags which were labeled and coloured differently for different types of
litter, breathing masks, bin bags and latex gloves. Litter was collected in
different bags according to litter type, namely; bio-degradable, plastic, paper
and metal. The significance of this was to introduce a culture of recycling which
was echoed by members of the BinItByo committee.

Mission Accomplished: City kept clean

At the end of it all, each group then
went back to the city hall, which was central to the event and the litter
collected was gathered there and collected by BCC refuse trucks

You can join the BinItByo initiative by
liking their Facebook page on the link http://www.facebook.com/BinItByo
and following them on twitter under the handle @BinItByo and under the hash tag
#BinItByo.